Editing Laugh-O-Gram Studio (section)

==History==
In 1921, [[Walt Disney]] was contracted by Milton Feld to animate twelve cartoons, which he called Newman's Laugh-O-Grams.<ref group="ChWDC">{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}} Source: Page 67. "Disney's World", by Leonard Mosley, 1985.</ref> On May 23, 1922, when Disney was 20 years old, Laugh-O-Gram Films (LOGF) was incorporated by him using the remaining assets of the defunct Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists from local investors. LOGF produced nine of the requested 12 films with little income.<ref group=ChWDC>{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}}<br>Sources:
* The Disney Studio Story, by Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley, 1988.
* The Art of Walt Disney – From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms, by Christopher Finch, 1973.
* Disney's Art of Animation – From Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast, by Bob Thomas, 1991.
* Page 19. Walt Disney – Hollywood's Dark Prince, by Marc Eliot, 1993.
* Page 67. "Disney's World", by Leonard Mosley, 1985.
* Page 140. The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Volume II – Directors/Filmmakers, by Christopher Lyon, 1984.
* Page 62. Walt Disney – An American Original, by Bob Thomas, 1994.
* Page 40. Walt in Wonderland – The Silent Films of Walt Disney, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman, 1993.
* Page 41. Walt Disney, by Jim Fanning, 1994.
* Page 9. Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse – His Life and Times, by Richard Holliss, 1986.
* Page 41. Walt Disney – Pop Culture Legends, by Jim Fanning, 1994.
* Page 42. Building a Company – Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire, by Bob Thomas, 1998.
* Page 13. Disney – The First 100 Years, updated edition, by Dave Smith and Steven Clark, 2002.
* Page 61. Walt Disney – The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler, 2006.</ref> Encouraged and inspired by his shorts' popularity at the theatre, Disney decided he wanted to make his own animated versions of fairy tales too, and invested six months on his first attempt at ''[[Little Red Riding Hood (1922 film)|Little Red Riding Hood]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Merritt |first=Russell |last2=Kaufman |first2=J. B. |year=2011 |title=Walt Disney's Laugh-O-Grams, 1921–1923 |url=https://silentfilm.org/walt-disneys-laugh-o-grams-1921-1923/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200718220909/https://silentfilm.org/walt-disneys-laugh-o-grams-1921-1923/ |archive-date=2020-07-18 |access-date=2020-04-29 |website=Silent Film Festival}}</ref>

Among Disney's employees on the series were several pioneers of animation: [[Ub Iwerks]], [[Hugh Harman]], [[Friz Freleng]], and [[Carman Maxwell]]. The company had financial problems and by the end of 1922, Disney was living in the office and taking baths once a week at [[Union Station (Kansas City)|Union Station]].

During the studio's sales manager Leslie Mace's stay in New York, where he was looking for distributors, he ended up signing a contract for six animated shorts with Pictorial Clubs, Inc. of Tennessee on Sunday, September 16, 1922. Pictorial agreed to pay {{US$|11000|1922}} for the cartoons, which were supposed to be shown at schools and other non-theatrical places, but only paid $100 in advance. The rest of the payment would have to wait until January 1, 1924, when all the shorts had been delivered. When Pictorial went bankrupt only a few months later, the studio never received the rest of the payment, its financial problems became even more serious, and the staff ended up leaving. When the local Kansas City dentist Thomas B. McCrum, from the Deener Dental Institute, contacted Disney and offered him the job of producing a short subject about dental hygiene intended for the Missouri school system,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Pat |title=How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life |date=August 1, 2004 |publisher=Health Communications |isbn=0-7573-0231-9}}</ref> he brought together some of his staff again and made ''Tommy Tucker's Tooth'', which earned the studio $500. Instead of paying off his creditors, the money was invested in the live-action/animation demonstration film ''[[Alice's Wonderland]]'', starring the youthful [[Virginia Davis]]. Disney had noted how popular the ''[[Out of the Inkwell]]'' series from the [[Fleischer Studios]] was, which had animated characters interacting with the real world. By reversing this gimmick and using a real-life character in a cartoon universe instead, he hoped for a hit.
Virginia Davis's contract with Laugh-O-Gram was signed by her parents on April 23, 1923, with terms giving her 5% of the ''Alice's Wonderland'' film's receipts.<ref group="ChWDC">{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}} Source: page 49. Walt in Wonderland – The Silent Films of Walt Disney, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman, 1993.</ref> Looking for a distributor for ''Alice's Wonderland'' on May 14, Disney wrote to [[Margaret Winkler]], a New York film distributor.<ref group=ChWDC>{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}}<br>Sources:
* Page 22. Walt Disney – Hollywood's Dark Prince, by Marc Eliot, 1993.
* Page 52. Walt in Wonderland – The Silent Films of Walt Disney, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman, 1993.
* Page 79. Walt Disney – The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler, 2006.</ref>

After finishing the raw edits of ''Alice's Wonderland'',<ref group=ChWDC>{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}}<br>Sources:
[16] [23] [24] [40.69] [63.50]</ref> the studio filed for [[Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code|Chapter 11 bankruptcy]] in July 1923.<ref group=ChWDC>{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}}<br>Sources:
[1] [34.22] [1102.72] (spring [40.71]) (August [63.51])</ref> Disney finally made some money by shooting a film of a 6-month-old girl named Kathalee Viley<ref>{{Cite web |last=Korkis |first=Jim |date=March 22, 2017 |title=The Laugh-O-Gram Story: Part One |url=https://www.mouseplanet.com/11723/The_LaughOgram_Story_Part_One |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417172444/https://www.mouseplanet.com/11723/The_LaughOgram_Story_Part_One |archive-date=2023-04-17 |access-date=2017-07-06 |website=Mouseplanet.com}}</ref> and selling his [[movie camera]], earning enough for a one-way train ticket, moving to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood, California]]; he brought along an unfinished reel of ''Alice's Wonderland''.

The bankruptcy trustee was able to force LOGF's erstwhile distributor and debtor, Pictorial Films, Inc., to pay LOGF's agents the sum owed while agreeing that Pictorial could exercise its contractual distribution rights for LOGF works and to purchase several of LOGF's films: ''The Four Musicians of Bremen'', ''Jack the Giant Killer'', the ''Lafflets'' series, and ''Alice's Wonderland''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Susanin |first=Timothy S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z9t5hK5_BcC&q=M.%20J.%20Winkler%20Productions&pg=PA143 |title=Walt Before Mickey: Disney's Early Years, 1919–1928 |publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |year=2011 |isbn=9781604739619 |page=254 |access-date=2017-07-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417172433/https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z9t5hK5_BcC&q=M.%20J.%20Winkler%20Productions&pg=PA143 |archive-date=2023-04-17 |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

The studio building fell to ruin and efforts were made to restore it by a non-profit group called "Thank You, Walt Disney". The Disney family promised $450,000 in matching funds for the rights to other Disney memorabilia and to tell the history of Walt Disney's life in Kansas City, a movie house to exhibit original and restored Laugh-O-Grams, and an education center for animation workshops.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Austin |date=May 2, 2020 |title=First House of Mouse: Reanimating Walt Disney's KC Film Studio Closer to Reality Than Ever Before |work=[[Startland News]] |url=https://www.startlandnews.com/2020/05/thank-you-walt-disney/ |url-status=live |access-date=2021-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918221322/https://www.startlandnews.com/2020/05/thank-you-walt-disney/ |archive-date=2021-09-18}}</ref>

On July 30, 2021, a black [[Dodge Charger]] struck the building and caused significant damage to the exterior. The incident occurred early in the morning, the driver fleeing the scene, though authorities subsequently found a woman's driving license and a margarita within the vehicle. Butch Rigby, who launched the campaign to save and restore the building, described the incident optimistically: "The bottom line, it's a bump in the road, but it could have been worse".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Collison |first=Kevin |date=August 3, 2021 |title=No Joke, Car Punches Laugh-O-Gram Building |work=[[CityScene KC]] |url=https://cityscenekc.com/no-joke-car-punches-laugh-o-gram-building/ |url-status=live |access-date=2021-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918221315/https://cityscenekc.com/no-joke-car-punches-laugh-o-gram-building/ |archive-date=2021-09-18}}</ref>